Future Rock Interview

Published: March 1, 2012

By: Nick Callaio

This fully electronic trio hasn't just hit the market, they have been tearing up festivals and venues piece by piece. Future Rock’s in-your-face style has put success squarely in their sights. Colorful LED's light up the awed faces of their fans and their honest musical talent has set them apart from the rest of the livetronica cacophony. With quite a few years spent perfecting their live act, they bring the heat to any and every show they play, as promised. They stemmed from one of the music capitals in the country and somehow found their spot amongst the hundreds of acts that come out of the windy city of Chicago.

Nick Callaio: How have you been lately?

Felix Moreno: Man, I’m feeling pretty good, actually. We took some extended time off after New Year’s and did some writing – just to refocus. This is the first run of 2012, I am on the road and about play some music in the mountains of Colorado.

It has been said that you’re not a “shy” bass player, does this reflect anything else that you do day to day?

FM: When you put a bass in my hands, I feel pretty comfortable to connect with people musically – that's about it. (laughs)

Why such a long break between your albums? Did you just want to focus on your live act.

FM: We were so focused on making this electronic sound live that we forgot about producing in the studio. I don't think we were ever happy with how things would turn out when we were in the studio until our last EP. So, trying to get our live sound down and not focusing on the studio just took us a while.

Can we see any work along the lines of Aphex Rock or Daft Rock?

FM: In the short term probably not, I would love to though. In the long term, you never know what’s going to happen. You have to reinvent yourself and keep it fresh for you because if it's not, it won't be for the audience. Right now it doesn't sound too appealing to us go out and perform a set of Daft Punk, but there are other artists, keep in mind. We want to develop our own music but like I said we have been writing a bunch and will be hitting the drawing tables again after this run.

What can expect from the trio in the coming months?

FM: We are going to take it back, like we did in 2007, to what we called the whiskey-coffee sessions. It's basically when we lock ourselves in a room, drink as much whiskey and coffee possible and write new material. You have to love what you do in the music business because if you don't your fans are the first to know and the show suffers. So we have these four shows in Colorado then some serious writing. For us, it's all about creating the love for music that we make. I think we honed in on that with the Nights EP, our grasp of the technology is way beyond where we were the last time we attacked this kind of project.

How does it feel to be one of the best supporting acts for tDB this past NYE?

FM: I love those guys, they have gone out of their way to show love for Future Rock. There is a lot of mutual respect there and has between the bands over the years. It was an awesome show too, I don't know if you have been to the auditorium but the décor make your jaw drop. It is our hometown and our fans came out nice and early to catch the set. The whole night was what we have come to expect what NYE is like in Chicago, just spectacular.

You guys go above and beyond expectations every live show you play, how do you guys keep it that way?

FM: Keeping it fresh is everything. The only reason why there aren't a lot of bands that do what we do is because they burn out. I don't think any of us will want to do a show in any half-assed ways. It would suck; you would be able to see it in my face if it was a half-assed show. That is not what I want to present to people, I don't care about anything else except for our show to be the best show, that's why we have fans – people know we pour our heart out every single time. Even if it means 14 dudes in a 15-man trailer, like right now, so be it – that is what we have to do. It's hard thinking of it as a chore sometimes but that is a challenge for all of us, that's the life we picked. We will never compromise a show, I can promise you that.

What is your summer plans looking like as of now? Jam-packed festival lineup?

FM: Things are lining up nicely, but nothing I can share as of quite yet. Also that's a management question, you tell me when and where then I show up with my bass guitar to play.

Why are you guys only doing a Colorado run and then taking some time off? Aside from Chicago, do you hold something special for Colorado?

FM: People love music here. It is also invigorating to play, like right now I am in Avon surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. People here really enjoy music. If you look at the market as consumers and concert goers, there are a huge amount of goers here. I love playing around here, I love traveling around here and I love the feeling – doesn't get any better than this.

Saw you guys at the Larimer Lounge not too long ago and it was unbelievable how much energy was in that venue, how are you guys going to top that?

FM: I think you’re going to see some music that you haven’t seen before and the same intensity from all of us. That Larimer Lounge show could have been better, but it got so rowdy because of that small ass room. I remember sweat on me and on people from the front row – kind of like this sweat haze bomb thing. I love shows when the crowd is on the same page on me. That is why music is so special to me out of every other art, everyone is experiencing it at the same time. If it was a painting in a museum people can go up to it and look at it individually. When we do get to play places like that, we can enjoy it in the same atmosphere with the same feelings. I love it if we had another show like that but at the same time we might switch it up the a more spiritual type of sound. That is what I hope happens, we can play as Future Rock but we can take it as how the crowd or the performance dictates.

Can we maybe see a switch in styles in the future?

FM: The music has to evolve. I get older and change as a person and so does the music. I don't really want to hold down one kind of music that I am. It hard to answer when people ask what kind of music Furture Rock plays, well we play the music that we want. Right now just like everyone else in the electronic scene, we are fixated on some concepts like sound. Sounds are becoming harsher to the ear which I find very interesting. I think we will be incorporating some of those sounds that we are hearing that everyone of kind of craving. I would like to call it a fusion between heavy metal and electronica, it started with Justice and then moved it through dubstep also. I can definitely see some of those influences poking through from us but it's always going be a little different because we do it in a live setting. We are real dudes with real instruments that make music. We will probably stick to taking rock songs and switching them over electronica. We have done Nirvana in the past. We are actually used the same technology that some of the heavy hitters in the scene use today.

How did the great city of Chicago influence Future Rock's music?

FM: There is definitely a certain attitude and feel to it and certainly a serious music past. When you look at the scene out there as a whole, we are blip if that. It nurturing, there is mad support for taking chances. I don't think we couldn't have evolved in any other scene, especially the way we sound now. Specifically being that Chicago has such a huge house music following, we learned about it. In the mushroom jazz days, definitely not something that is in right now, but it taught me about house music was all about. Today, I think you couldn't have any other better city to be based out of. They are so hungry for electronic music and fascinated by them doing it live. It's home and it's perfect for us.

What were some of the problems you faced as a band over the years?

FM: I think we have the same problems that must bands do. Being able to take each other for this long is hard, overcoming the trials of the road and the hardest thing, of course, is staying true to the music. It's not easy; you have to put true love into it. I can guarantee if you don't put love into this, it can get grueling. Once one notices that, you have to take a step back and like we are doing right now, writing some music.